Dive Brief:
- Aegerion CEO Marc Beer resigned from his post at the company on Monday amid a tense relationship with a group of investors, FierceBiotech reports. Beer had been at Aegerion for five years and helped launch the company's first drug, Juxtapid (lomiapide)
- Sarissa Capital owns 5.8% of Aegerion and has ben agitating for changes at the company, including the right to pick the director of the board.
- Juxtapid is indicated for treatment of homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. But its sales have only been so-so, and now that Sanofi's Praluent (alirocumab) has been approved for the same indication, with stellar clinical trial results, Juxtapid's sales are at risk.
Dive Insight:
When Aegerion won approval for Juxtapid in December 2012, the company had high hopes for the drug.
But Beer demonstrated some questionable behavior in terms of openly discussing off-label uses and exaggerating the drug's efficacy. He even received a warning letter from the FDA in August 2014. Now, Beer's days are numbered as he makes way for Sanford Drexel Smith, an Aegerion board member, to take over in the position of interim CEO.